Katerina Schattenberg
Katerina Scattenberg (birthname Catherine Alexander) is the founder of ShadowTech. During the Dino Attack, her incorporeal consciousness was transferred to the body of the primary synthfig Kat. Biography Early Life Catherine Alexander was born in 1934 in the city of Town Plan. Her parents, hit hard by the Great Depression and already caring for their son Ronald, were unable to support a second child and put her up for adoption. She was taken in by Hendrik and Ariane Schattenberg, an affluent couple from Barron who were extremely wealthy thanks to several mines owned by Hendrik's family for generations, but were childless. Since this was a somewhat touchy subject for them, they Germanicized Catherine's given name in order to hide from others the fact that their daughter was adopted. In 1940, the Alexander and Schattenberg families agreed to let Ronald and Katerina see each other again. When the time came to leave, Ronald refused to let go of Katerina, forcing their parents to step in and separate them. Ronald Alexander vowed to "fix the world" so no family would ever need to be separated again. Around that same time, Katerina's adoptive brother, Rainer Wolfgang Schattenberg, was born. Hendrik and Ariane could not have been more overjoyed to have a biological child to inherit the mining corporation. As an adult, Rainer Wolfgang Schattenberg succumbed to tuberculosis. On his deathbed, Rainer made his son, Canis, vow to ruin Katerina Schattenberg, who planned to sell the Schattenberg family mines in Barron to fund her research. Although Katerina raised Canis after Rainer's passing, he secretly plotted revenge against his aunt. In 1968, Katerina Schattenberg married an astronaut. Her husband traveled through space on an expedition to the Nimbus System. When he returned home in 1999, he was a Stromling, and Katerina was forced to kill him. Having learned of the Maelstrom, she secretly founded ShadowTech to begin research into how to destroy the Maelstrom. Creation of Kat Main Article: Kat The 'synthetic minifig' was the brainchild of Katerina Schattenberg. Through cloning, genetic engineering, and the like, they succeeded in creating an artificial minifig which was more or less a younger duplicate of Schattenberg, modeled after her 27-year-old self. The duplicate was grown in stasis for the final stages, during which Schattenberg herself worked on translating Creative Sparks into a digital format. In 2005, Canis (working for ShadowTech as agent Cane) dispatched assassins to kill Katerina. This forced Katerina to download herself into the primary synthfig and lock away most of her memories, adopting the identity "Kat", although Cane was well-aware of this. Katerina herself was killed in a chemical explosion caused by Cane's assassins. After Katerina's death, Cane decided to continue the synthfig project and took Kat out of stasis. Cane awoke Kat and explained to her that she had been traumatically injured in an explosion, and was placed in stasis to heal, claiming that her lack of memory was due to stasis-induced amnesia. Cane allowed Kat to work for him as a high-ranking engineer, unsurprised that she carried his aunt's specialty for designing security systems, while he took command of ShadowTech. Kat continued to work for ShadowTech as an engineer until the Dino Attack. Dino Attack Accused of being a Dino Attack sympathizer, Kat was betrayed by Cane and chose to team up with Hotwire. She even briefly joined Dino Attack Team as agent Wing. While Katerina's personality remained dormant in Kat's mind, she did subconsciously assist Kat in escaping Cane and awakening her interfacing abilities. Later in the war, Kat was captured by Cane, who brought her to the palatial island home of ShadowTech's founder. Gradually dropping hints about her true nature, he told her about the synthetic minifig project, then, saying he would introduce her to ShadowTech's founder, brought her to a memorial to Katerinae Schattenberg. Kat recognized the name as her own, and passed out from the shock. When she awoke, the residual shock was nearly enough to give her a panic attack. She managed to explain her situation to her teammates and, experiencing an identity crisis of sorts, stated that she was no longer agent Wing, thus dropping out of the team. Shortly afterward, Kat's original synthfig body was killed by Loop, forcing her to upload her consciousness to the modified T-1 Typhoon helicopter, Talon. After this discovery, Hotwire explained to Rex that Kat was actually a synthetic clone of Dr. Rex's sister Catherine Alexander, thus making her and Rex siblings in a way. Rex joked that Chompy was Kat's "half-brother twice removed", and Chompy was unsure what to think of this. Adventurers' Island Mission During Dino Attack Team's mission to Adventurers' Island, Kat landed the Talon at the landing field of Outpost 4. There, she experienced a dream where she spoke with Katerina Schattenberg, who revealed her presence in Kat's mind and explained what needed to be done. Kat agreed, letting Katerina take full control. The Talon was found by Loop. Katerina redirected Loop with an executive override and then flew the Talon to ShadowTech's S.T.A.R.E. unit, located in a lighthouse on the island. There, Katerina's consciousness was transferred out of the helicopter and into a new primary synthfig. Along with Loop and six other secondary synthfigs, Katerina Schattenberg flew the Talon to the Temple of Pharaoh Hotep III, joining up with Hotwire and the rest of the Dino Attack Team. To be expanded... Abilities and Traits Although Kat was based upon Katerina Schattenberg, they were very different in personality. This was best exemplified when Katerina's consciousness had taken over Kat's body, which resulted in subtle differences apparent to those who had known Kat: Katerina's eyes were harder and piercing, and her voice held more authority and the ghost of a German accent. She also had steel-gray hair pulled back in a tight ponytail when she appeared in a dream to Kat, suggesting that this was her true appearance. After uploading herself into Kat's body, her skeleton is made of a combination of bone and metal, making it incredibly strong. Her brain has the calculating and recall strength of a supercomputer. While in a physical body of a primary synthfig, she was capable of manipulating technology, but needed to have some sort of physical contact with the internal components. She was also capable of enhancing any or all of her senses at will. After becoming incorporeal, she found herself able to download herself into any piece of technology with sufficiently advanced computer systems, and enough memory space. Quotes Trivia *Katerina's last name was inspired by ShadowTech; "Schatten" is German for "shadow" or "shade". *In her early appearances, Katerina's given name was spelled "Katerinae". See Also *Kat Category:Jackson Lake Category:Dino Attack Allies Category:Deceased Characters Category:ShadowTech Category:To Be Expanded